Wahhabism (Arabic: وهابية‎, Wahhābiyyah) or Wahhabi mission[1] (/wəˈhɑːbi, wɑː-/;[2] Arabic: ألدعوة ألوهابية‎, al-Da'wa al-Wahhābiyyah ) is a religious movement or sect or form[3] of Sunni Islam[4][5][6] variously described as "orthodox", "ultraconservative",[7] "austere",[3] "fundamentalist",[8] "puritanical"[9] (or "puritan").[10] It describes an Islamic "reform movement" to restore "pure monotheistic worship",[11] or an "extremist pseudo-Sunni movement".[12] Adherents often object to the term Wahhabi or Wahhabism as derogatory, and prefer to be called Salafi or muwahhid.[13][14][15]

Wahhabism is named after an eighteenth century preacher and scholar, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792).

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Wahhabism does not increase pluralism and tolerance in the world. - Will McCants / Brookings Institute

ISIS has stolen the thunder of other Islamic groups because they combine the Return of the Caliphate and the Apocalypse.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by rising food prices due to Syria importing much of the basic food commodities it needs.

Why did basic food commodities rise so much? Because the US shifted to burning food as fuel supported primarily by liberal democrat greenies.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by rising food prices due to Syria importing much of the basic food commodities it needs.

Why did basic food commodities rise so much? Because the US shifted to burning food as fuel supported primarily by liberal democrat greenies.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by rising food prices due to Syria importing much of the basic food commodities it needs.

Why did basic food commodities rise so much? Because the US shifted to burning food as fuel supported primarily by liberal democrat greenies.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by rising food prices due to Syria importing much of the basic food commodities it needs.

Why did basic food commodities rise so much? Because the US shifted to burning food as fuel supported primarily by liberal democrat greenies.

StephenOABC saidTo understand the rise of ISIS, one has to understand the political vacuum that was created in Syria.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by their leader's totalitarian regime, and specifically an attack on rural schoolchildren by the government. Sure, that created a political vacuum, but Assad kills and gases his own people. What can be done when someone like Hitler is in charge? You have to take them out.

The civil war in Syria was sparked by rising food prices due to Syria importing much of the basic food commodities it needs.

Why did basic food commodities rise so much? Because the US shifted to burning food as fuel supported primarily by liberal democrat greenies.

tj85016 saidthe French also invaded every friggin country in the Middle East, northern Africa and southeast Asia

Au contraire. It was the Brits who took most of the Middle East and fobbed off the French with only Syria and Lebanon. Look up the Sykes-Picot Agreement.And French rule may have had its shortcomings but who wouldn't prefer the days when Beirut was the Paris of the East as compared to now. Also, the beheadings and explosions didn't start til after the French left.

The development of a divine-right theory of kingship, however, made blasphemy just as dangerous to monarchs as to the Church and insisted upon secular authorities' interest in the crime. By the eighteenth century, the strengthening of the sovereign's power had diminished the threat of the blasphemer to the community, and blasphemy became a private sin rather than a public menace.

Nonetheless, the concept of blasphemous speech continued well after the emergence of a secular age. Enlightenment inquiries into religion destabilized the crime of blasphemy by demonstrating cultural differences in approaches to piety; by showing regional variation, writers such as Voltaire rejected blasphemy as a uniform idea. Not only did philosophers modify their positions, magistrates and justices also began to find new ways to justify repression that emphasized legal considerations over religious interpretations. The circumstances of the utterance began to take precedence over the proof of errant speech. The law began to emphasize social harmoniousness as a goal rather than use repression as a means to satisfy God's vengeance.

Under French law the offence of blasphemy did not carry the death penalty. The legal ordinance of 1666 prescibes a fine for the first offence, double the fine for the second offence, and the pillory for the sixth offence.

- from Voltaire, a Life

Pillory is a wooden frame work for head and hands so the offender can be exposed to public abuse.

Under French law the offence of blasphemy did not carry the death penalty. The legal ordinance of 1666 prescibes a fine for the first offence, double the fine for the second offence, and the pillory for the sixth offence.

- from Voltaire, a Life

Pillory is a wooden frame work for head and hands so the offender can be exposed to public abuse.